Mumbai, Jeddea Film Festival, and local GOP

There is one survivor who participated in the bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. This weekend he surprised everyone in the middle of his trial: "Moments before the trial’s 135th witness was to take the stand, the defendant, a young Pakistani named Ajmal Kasab, stood up and told the judge that he had participated in the attacks.

Speaking softly in Hindi and Urdu to a stunned and spellbound courtroom, he gave a detailed recounting of the planning and execution of the operation, beginning with his introduction to a Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and ending with the rampage that hit two luxury hotels, a railway station, popular cafe and a Jewish center.

“I don’t think I am innocent,” Mr. Kasab, 21, declared toward the end of his daylong confession. “My request is that we end the trial and I be sentenced.” The judges are now conferring whether they can accept his confession... He related how he and his friend were tired of their sucky jobs and decided that being bank robbers would be more fun. So they looked around for a taliban group that would train them for their new jobs. Not a lot different from alienated teenagers here trying to figure which gang to identify with... I wonder if it's now a required tradition in Pakistan, a rite of passage for 13 year old boys: today I am a taliban...

When one thinks of culture in the Middle East, more specifically, of films and filmmakers, we pretty much draw a blank. This is largely due to the hypocritical nature of a culture who watches thousands of DVD's behind closed doors, while proclaiming them in public to be decadent Western pollution. For the last two years, the Jeddea Film Festival had been attempting to change the public attitude, until this weekend: "The festival was due to begin on Saturday. But an hour before midnight on Friday the organisers were told by the Jeddah municipality to cancel it.
The only official explanation was that the event had not been sufficiently prepared.
But it is widely believed the ban is the latest victory for religious conservatives, who regard cinema as a form of Western moral pollution.
Jeddah - the Red Sea city which is also the Saudi business hub - has long been more liberal and open than the desert capital, Riyadh. Much bitter fighting among the Saudi Royal family, with the right wing Wahabists winning this round. One can only wonder what goes on behind that green door...

The amount of women getting involved at the state levels have been decreasing, according to the Christian Science Monitor: "Since 1995, the percentage of women in the Republican caucuses of state legislatures has been steadily declining – from 19.1 percent to 15.8 percent today, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Democratic women, by comparison, have been steadily rising as a percentage of their party’s state legislative caucuses, from 22.2 percent in 1995 to 31 percent today. Just 21 years ago, in 1988, Republican women were slightly ahead of Democratic women in their respective state legislative party caucuses – 16.4 percent versus 15.3 percent.

“Women are having a pretty tough time within the Republican Party,” says Debbie Walsh, the center’s director." Our local GOP is run by a woman, and the only other local women I see interested in joining are right wing christians, and this may be the paradox. If your beliefs are how I tend to stereotype, then obeying the top male figure in your life comes before making decisions for yourself, your career, etc. The tent is shrinking as the politics become polarized, soon only the old, rich alcoholics are the ones partying at the Grand Old Party..